For setting up the inside, it took me awhile to figure out what I wanted. When we first got serious about plans for the greenhouse, I collected all sorts of neat pictures of greenhouse interiors. Some of them had shelves for pots, others planted directly into beds dug into the ground. I spent a lot of time trying to envision our greenhouse and what my goals were.
I was initially assumed I just needed shelves, until I started thinking about how I actually want to use it. For one thing, I want cold weather veggies for fresh eating in winter. I also want a place for spring seed starts, and someplace to store pots, potting soil and compost. For spring starter trays, shelves make a lot of sense, but I knew I didn't want to plant lettuce and broccoli for the winter in small pots. It made more sense to use larger pots to give the roots some room.
First Dan finished the interior walls beneath the windows with cement board.
Then he made a bordered bed from old mill lumber, given to us by a neighbor.
Then I moved in the lettuce, kale, and chickweed I started outside in gallon pots, and tucked them in with spent straw from the barn.
Surrounding the pots with straw will act as good insulation.
The bed can hold 14 one- and two-gallon pots pus 3 half-barrels from 55 gallon drums. There's enough room on the end for more pots if I want.
Then there was the other wall.
This is where Dan built the bench.
The shelves are made from the tongue-and-groove boards he tore out of the front bedroom in anticipation of remodeling its closet. I have plenty of storage space for pots and buckets of soil and compost. The top shelf has plenty of room for starting spring plants.
The other thing checked off the to-do list is the hose for the rainwater tank.
The wand type nozzle I attached works well for potted plants. I got it from Amazon.
Still to do is stone for the floor and finishing the trim around the house door. Oh, and I have a little more painting to do. In the meantime, I've got stuff growing in it! And that's the main thing. :)
The Greenhouse Is Almost Done © Jan 2025
22 comments:
It really looks great Leigh! You and Dan should be very pleased with your work.
Indeed we are, TB. I'm going to try planting more lettuce in one of the pots and beets and potatoes in the tubs. I'm curious as to whether they'll be willing to grow in there this time of year.
The greenhouse looks great.Happy growing! RHill, TX
Wow, what a fabulous space! You and Dan make a great team. Happy growing!
I have found greenhouse styles to be very personable to location and the needs of the gardener. I grew up on a farm with a greenhouse where we had built in trays full of dirt. While it is easy to plant with garden vegetables, it is a lot of work repotting later on to prepare for transfer to the garden and then refreshing the soil every spring before planting. But it worked well for sowing things like herbs and lettuces that don't need repotting. With that in mind, we went more like what you did with our current greenhouse in town. I just used decking material for the shelves and we grow everything in small pots that will be transferred to the garden. It takes a bit more work planting and preparing things but pays dividends when it is time to move outside to the garden. We can't really overwinter things that are edible so I have a raised bed planter of sorts on our deck where we grow our herbs and lettuces. I also like the fact that it is only about 20 steps from the kitchen countertop so it is quite easy to harvest while cooking.
That greenhouse is a definite success. I've always fancied planting in the ground inside a greenhouse. Something very appealing about it, indoors and outdoors at once.
RHill, it's very fun to have things growing when the outdoor garden is dead. :)
Thanks Daisy!
Looks great! I will be showing this to my husband. His only reason to not build me one, is that it will be needing a heat source during winter. Not sure why that is deterring him, but maybe these photos will inspire him. Your greens are making me hungry, ha ha!
How exciting, and wonderful to have fresh foods growing during the cold months. We've talked about a greenhouse, but our little house is in the middle of the woods, so probably wouldn't work very well. Enjoy those veggies!
Ed, your story compared to mind very much proves your point. I feel like I'm still in the experimentation phase, and it's all based on observations of how my experiments go.
Is your raised bed planter a cold frame? I like the idea of fresh herbs all winter, so that's something I should get started. I'd have to move the pots outside in summer, but it would still be worth it.
Liz, I thought about that too, but settled on pots in a raised beds because the soil there is so compact and full of gravel. I think plants would have a better chance in the ground because the earth helps insulate against both cold and heat.
Kristina, a heat source is something we've discussed, but I think being attached to the house helps, as does the internal rain storage tank.
Last winter I found that even when we got down to the single digits, the greenhouse temp wasn't low enough to kill my cool weather veggies. And that was without insulating the pots. My cherry tomato and green pepper plants, on the other hand, died.
If we were going to add heat, Dan said he'd build a small rocket heater. But for now, I think I can make do as is.
Laurie, without sun it would be tough to grow anything! Even with all the leaves off the trees. But it is nice to have fresh salad greens and kale for the soup pot. :)
Leigh, that is FABULOUS! Looking so good, and growing things.....So envious!!!
I'm getting the itch, (looking out on our fields of snow!!) so started my tiny Aero garden with exactly 6 tiny sprigs of green...
I hope it does well, Rosalea! I've loved having fresh greens in winter, especially since all by my kale bed have died back.
So wonderful. Will be very nice to have it all done and final. I wish I had a "Dan". lol Can't wait to see your bounty!
Barbara, Dan is a real gem. :) I'm going to have some fun experimenting with planting dates. We've got our deep dip into frigid starting tonight so I'm curious as to what our greenhouse's nighttime lows will be.
It is not but could easily be made into one. Mine is simply a rectangular "coffin sized" box built out of cedar decking planks and built up on skids so that any excess moisture doesn't build up between the bottom of the plantar and the deck where we have it sitting and rot out things early. It would be easy enough to put a glass lid on it to turn into a cold frame. Up here, it gets so cold (-1F now with -10 F windchills), I think it would still kill anything growing in it overnight before the sun had enough time to warm it up. I'm not sure I've seen a cold frame outside all winter long up here. Mostly I've seen them inside greenhouses and well insulated.
Ed, I have a couple of books by Eliot Coleman, and that's what he talks about, using cold frames inside of greenhouses. Considering he's located in New England and has good success, it's an experiment worth trying. Sounds like with your setup, you just take what you can get for as long as you can.
You green house looks great. I wanted to ask what your cooking preferences are with your chickweed? Chickweed grows wild in my area but I've never cooked with it.
Hi Ronan, welcome! Actually, I don't cook with chickweed, but we eat it in salads all the time. It's mild, tender, and full of minerals. It really helps stretch the salad when other greens are scarce. I also feed it to my goats. I wouldn't mind tossing it in soup though! It's tender though, so I'm guessing it would cook up the same as lettuce.
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